Investigating novel <i>Streptomyces</i> bacteriophage endolysins as potential antimicrobial agents

As antibiotic resistance has become a major global threat, the World Health Organization (WHO) has urgently called for alternative strategies for control of bacterial infections. Endolysin, a phage-encoded protein, can degrade bacterial peptidoglycan in the bacterial cell wall and disrupt bacterial growth. According to the WHO, there are only three endolysin products currently in clinical phase development. In this study we explored novel endolysins from <i>Streptomyces</i> phages as only a few of them have been experimentally characterized. Using several bioinformatics tools, we identified nine different combinations of functional enzymatic domain types from 250 <i>Streptomyces</i> bacteriophages possible endolysins. From these, three potential endolysins were selected for experimental characterization. All three showed positive results in degrading cell wall material and disrupting bacterial growth, indicating their potential as possible antimicrobial agents.